A Coalition Of Developers: Foundation 9's Jon Goldman

At the DICE Summit in February, Gamasutra got the chance to sit down with Jon Goldman, CEO of Foundation 9 (Death Jr.), one of the (and possibly the) largest independent development company conglomerate in the world.

Spread across North America and Europe, the company has no publishing elements, and includes studios as diverse as the U.K.'s Sumo Digital, U.S.' Shiny and The Collective, and the U.S. and Canada's Backbone Entertainment, among others, with more than 800 employees spread among multiple major offices. Its games include Sonic Rivals, Monster Lab, Godzilla: Save The Earth, and a host of remake and 'classic' titles.

Here, Goldman discusses his company's Total Quality Initiative, which seeks to increase the studios' game quality, the nature of pairing up development opportunities with the right studios, and how their studio management philosophy is similar to EA's new city-state ideals -- before EA even announced them.